Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote: >> I found that > 60 packages in Debian have .gifs included. > Doh !, not uncompressed pseudo-gifs. > I was asking if GPLed LZW gifs are legal at all ?
I don't think the GIFs themselves infringe on the patent, as they do not encode or decode any data. The patent is for a process (as are all patents, if I understand correctly), not the resulting object. If the GIFs were created with unlicensed tools, then the author of the images might be in violation. If they are viewed with unlicensed tools, then the viewer might be in violation. The author/distributor of such tools might be in violation. In all cases, it's the tool that is infringing the patent, not the data. -- Mark Rafn [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://www.dagon.net/>
